A New Development Model and China's Future by Deng Yingtao

Author:Deng Yingtao [Yingtao, Deng]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317819059
Google: _sRwAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-04-24T04:59:04+00:00

A new way

As we have seen, by eliminating pervasive and harmful economic activities such as tobacco and drugs, living standards and quality of life can be improved without raising per capita GNP. Japan and Western Europe have reached the same per capita GNP as the United States, with only half the consumption of energy. There is a great disparity between the consumption of grain with which different countries achieve the same level of health in its citizens. And outstanding figures of different eras have achieved major creative successes under very different material living conditions of life. We can abstract from this the following principle.

Equivalence principle: there are very different levels of material consumption required to satisfy basic human needs and needs for self-development and pleasure, in terms of quality and quantity. As the level of needs rises (especially once survival needs have been met), more ways will be found to meet them, and the difference in the amount of materials that are consumed in order to to satisfy those needs, will also continue to grow.

This principle is illustrated in Figure 8.2. To a certain extent, the equivalence principle has more universality than a generalized Engel’s Law. The former takes into account a variety of material constraints, while the latter may well be distorted when levels of material constraints differ, for example, by the prevalence of harmful consumption and production behaviour.

I believe that a generalized Engel’s Law and the equivalence principle provide a sound theoretical foundation and philosophical background for a new development model. I summarize below some of the most important conclusions to this chapter.

Figure 8.2 Equivalence principle

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